Obama and Erdogan had a phone conversation on the 22nd of July prior to the attacks on the 24th where Turkey got the green light from Obama. Erdogan himself clearly stated: “In our phone call with Obama, we reiterated our determination in the struggle against the separatist organization and the Islamic State” Erdogan told reporters adding that “we took the first step last night.”

“…reiterated our determination in the struggle against the separatist organization …”?

This would be the Kurds, the U.S. allies against ISIS whom Erdogan says that Obama is determined to struggle against. The Kurdish PKK and the Democratic Union Party (PYD)and its armed wing, Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) has been America’s most effective battlefield partners against ISIS and Obama says nothing?

Msg. to the American people and the US gov. : Is this a penalty because we fought against ISIS instead of the world ? pic.twitter.com/YQYJmY2tls

A lot of things happened in Turkey this past week that started with an Islamic State (IS) suicide bombing targeting Kurdish activists trying to get humanitarian aid into Kobane and a Turkish Soldier killed during a firefight with IS fighters and ended with the Turkish military beginning operations against the terrorist organization – and the Kurds themselves. The attack on the Kurdish activists resulted in 31 killed and another 100 wounded. The cross-border firefight that occurred last Thursday involved five IS personnel approaching the border and firing on a Turkish Army position.

***

Isn’t it odd that it was the cross-border attack that led to the Turkish military retaliation while no mention was made of the suicide attack? Like we said, the reason is because Erdogan is fine with an IS attack conducted on Turkish soil as long as the people being killed are Kurds. Oh the Turkish military will respond with “proportional” retaliatory attacks against IS along the border if they continue – we just think Turkey and IS will maintain their overall deal to not engage in any sustained campaign against each other. In our piece titled “Turkey Evacuates Tomb of Suleiman Shah,” we suspected that a deal might have been made between Erdogan’s government and IS leading to the relocation of Suleiman Shah’s tomb. The events that followed that incident have only added further weight to our suspicions. The problem is the Erdogan government is using last week’s cross-border incident as a target of opportunity to target something much higher on his priority list: the Kurds themselves. The Turkish Air Force has already launched several airstrikes on the Iraqi-side of the Tri-Border Region targeting PKK locations. One would think that the Erdogan government would be blocking access to IS-affiliated web forums, Twitter and Facebook accounts. But they’re not. Instead, the Turkish government is blocking access to Kurdish sites. Now why do you suppose that is? We think you may already know the answer.

***

In his last public speech, one of our nation’s founding fathers – Patrick Henry – said “United we stand – divided we fall.” Those words remain true to this day in our America, but they also apply to the Kurds. Nirchivan Barzani and Qudbad Talabani both represent the new generation of Kurdish leaders. They’re in a unique position to unify all of the Kurdish factions in the fight against IS and realize their collective dream of an independent Kurdistan. Failure to see through the agendas of Turkey and Iran will result in the failure to see the establishment of an independent nation. The ball is in their court. We close with this message to both Barzani and Talabani – its dangerously naive in thinking that you can depend on the Obama administration or trust that Turkey and Iran aren’t already plotting against your people. In the end you will only have each other. What’s more important, defending your homes and families from IS’ nihilistic ideology and the realization of your dream of a Kurdish nation – or some petty squabbles from your own Kurdish brothers? Think about what we said – your future depends on it.

The President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government Masoud Barzani, did not take the advice of the ISIS Study group.

“The Turkish government has taken positive steps, and has adopted a positive attitude for a peaceful resolution; however, we have seen that some sides (the PKK) has taken [sic] it as a matter of pride and did not utilize these opportunities,” Barzani said in statements on Monday.

Barzani noted he felt compelled to make a personal statement against the PKK “because there were wrong interpretations and information being given in my name,” additionally condemning the group for the killing of two Turkish officers, which Barzani noted “will not solve any problems in Turkey.” He added, “Many times we sent messages to the PKK to remain patient and wait, because the peace process takes time and is not an easy process.” The PKK ended a two-year ceasefire with the killing of two Turkish police officers this weekend.

Ankara says the simultaneous targeting of ISIL and the PKK is part of a campaign that will help create safe zones against extremists. But residents in northern Iraq, where the rebel camps of the PKK are located, have expressed concern.

Sayed Zain al-Deen lives in Amadiya.

“Turkish fighter jets came and hit our village with ten rockets. We and our children were really scared. They even bombed our water supply,” he explained.

Ankara has called for a special NATO meeting on Tuesday (July 28) to discuss its security concerns.

Jordan Matson, an American who has been in Rojava fighting ISIS with the Kurds since last Fall, had this to say on his Facebook page, Sunday:

Today the Turkish army fired tank rounds across the border into rojava wounding 4 ypg. West of kobane.

These actions are giving aid to Isis. The majority of turkeys military action has been against the Kurds, they have done next to nothing to harm Isis in the grand scheme of things.

On the 28th turkey will be asking NATO to support a war against Kurdish rebels in turkey and Iraq.

This is not the first time that Turkey has been caught double-dealing against their U.S. NATO ally. There was the “gas for gold” scheme with Iran that allowed the Islamic Republic to skirt international sanctions, and Erdogan and the Turkish intelligence chief had a photographed meeting with U.S. designated Al-Qaeda global terror financier Yasin al-Qadi.

Curiously, shortly after those reports showing photographs of Erdogan meeting with al-Qadi appeared in the Turkish media, the Treasury Department under Obama removed al-Qadi’s terror designation.

The preferred route of thousands of foreign fighters now in the ranks of ISIS appears to have been mostly coming from Turkey and crossing the border into Syria, bringing complaints that Turkey was not doing enough to combat the group’s growth and that the border was becoming “a two-way jihadist highway.”

But a series of published reports going back to last year seem to show direct and indirect Turkish support for the Islamic State.

In April 2014, Turkish media reports showed photographs of ISIS commander Abu Muhammad being treated at the Hatay State Hospital after being injured fighting in Syria. Opposition politicians also claimed that fighters with Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria, were allowed to stay at the guesthouses of the government’s Religious Affairs Directorate.

Last November, Newsweek published an interview with a former ISIS fighter who said that ISIS fighters faced no obstructions entering from Turkey. Meanwhile, ISIS commanders bragged about the “full cooperation with the Turks,” while anti-ISIS Kurdish fighters were blocked by Turkish authorities.

This account seems to be confirmed by a report from Aydınlık Daily, which reported in July 2014 that the Turkish intelligence service, the MIT, had transported members of Syrian terrorist groups and their weapons across the border.

Two weeks after that report, at an event site approved by Erdogan’s ruling AKP Party and sponsored by a publication known for its ISIS sympathies, a rally was held in Istanbul where video showed speakers openly calling for jihad. There were also reports that recruiting for ISIS fighters took place.

In January, Turkish military documents from the Gendarmerie General Command leaked online showed thatTurkish intelligence were transporting missiles, mortars and anti-aircraft ammunition for Al-Qaeda and actively obstructed the military from documenting the transfers.

The New York Timesreported in May that massive amounts of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer used for making bombs, were being prepared in a Turkish town near Syria and transported across the border. The report quoted an opposition politician who admitted that the fertilizing was not for farms, but for bombs.

Reuters reported exclusively in late May that court documents and prosecutor testimony revealed that Turkish intelligence had transported weapons across the border in 2013 and early 2014, aiding the offensive push by ISIS into Iraq in June 2014. Erdogan himself had said that the shipments were aid.

Like this:

Members of the US Air Force are grumbling because their Commander in Chief’s “no-boots-on-the-ground” pledge is keeping them from fighting an effective air campaign against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Within the U.S. Air Force, there’s mounting frustration that the air campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is moving far more slowly than expected. Instead of a fast-moving operation with hundreds of sorties flown in a single day—the kind favored by many in the air service—American warplanes are hitting small numbers of targets after a painstaking and cumbersome process.

The single biggest problem, current and former Air Force officers say, is the so-called kill-chain of properly identifying and making sure the right target is being attacked. At the moment, that process is very complicated and painfully slow. “The kill-chain is very convoluted,” one combat-experienced Air Force A-10 Warthog pilot told The Daily Beast. “Nobody really has the control in the tactical environment.”

That story was posted at the Daily Beastback in October of 2014 – and the situation hasn’t improved one iota in 7 & 1/2 months. Can you imagine the frustration of these pilots?Here’s Fox News5/28/2015:

U.S. military pilots carrying out the air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are voicing growing discontent over what they say are heavy-handed rules of engagement hindering them from striking targets. They blame a bureaucracy that does not allow for quick decision-making. One Navy F-18 pilot who has flown missions against ISIS voiced his frustration to Fox News, saying: “There were times I had groups of ISIS fighters in my sights, but couldn’t get clearance to engage.”He added, “They probably killed innocent people and spread evil because of my inability to kill them. It was frustrating.”

This crap has been going on for nearly a year, and they’ve been forced to watch Daesh slaughter their way through Iraq from the sidelines – only allowed to bomb one or two jihadis at a time.

Sources close to the air war against ISIS told Fox News that strike missions take, on average, just under an hour, from a pilot requesting permission to strike an ISIS target to a weapon leaving the wing. A spokesman for the U.S. Air Force’s Central Command pushed back: “We refute the idea that close air support strikes take ‘an hour on average’. Depending on the how complex the target environment is, a strike could take place in less than 10 minutes or it could take much longer. “As our leaders have said, this is a long-term fight, and we will not alienate civilians, the Iraqi government or our coalition partners by striking targets indiscriminately.”

A former U.S. Air Force general who led air campaigns over Iraq and Afghanistan also said today’s pilots are being “micromanaged,” and the process for ordering strikes is slow — squandering valuable minutes and making it possible for the enemy to escape.

“You’re talking about hours in some cases, which by that time the particular tactical target left the area and or the aircraft has run out of fuel. These are excessive procedures that are handing our adversary an advantage,” said retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, a former director of the Combined Air Operations Center in Afghanistan in 2001.

Deptula placed the blame squarely on the community organizer in the White House.

“The ultimate guidance rests in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” he said. “We have been applying air power like a rain shower or a drizzle — for it to be effective, it needs to be applied like a thunderstorm.”

Of course this is his doing. He wants to be the anti-Bush – and Bush was hammered by the left for the (highly inflated) civilian casualties during the Iraq War.

“But wait,” you say – there are many more civilian casualties as a result of us doing nothing. ISIS is slaughtering, torturing, enslaving hundreds of people at a time – in the most heinous and gruesome ways!

But of course Obama doesn’t care about any of that. He just doesn’t want to get blamed for it.. And he knows, that by taking this dovish, hesitant, womanly stance, he keeps his anti-war base happy. And that’s really all that matters.

They will continue to gain ground, strength and power because President Fubar refuses to deal with them. But it’s okay – this cluster-F won’t reach critical mass until he’s left office (he’s hoping.)

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recently complained that 75 percent of pilots are returning without dropping any ordnance, due to delays in decision-making up the chain of command. A senior defense official at the Pentagon pushed back on the comparisons between the air war against ISIS and past air campaigns. “The Gulf War and Kosovo are not reasonable comparisons. In those instances, we were fighting conventional forces. Today, we are supporting a fight against terrorists who blend into the civilian population,” he said. “Our threshold for civilian casualties and collateral damage is low. We don’t want to own this fight. We have reliable partners on the ground.”

Like this:

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is calling on the Obama administration to come up with a “more aggressive strategy” to deal with ISIS/Daesh in Iraq. The apocalyptic terrorists now control the “key, strategic” city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province.

“The black flags are flying there,” McCaul told Fox News Wednesday morning. “This is a key transit point to Syria in Iraq, and now it’s fallen to ISIS.”

McCaul said that during his recent visit to Baghdad, Iraq’s prime minister told him after asking the White House for more military assistance, he has only received received humanitarian assistance. Whatever that means. Suitcases for impromptu road trips? Extra absorbent towels to wipe up the blood?

But it gets better. Obama’s new BFFs on the world stage now get to flex their muscles in Iraq.

“And now the prime minister of Iraq has to rely on the (Iranian) Shia militia — which is, I think, the most disturbing fact…my takeaway from the Middle East — because his Iraqi national army is so incapable of defending Ramadi, of defending Mosul…that you have to rely on the proxy of Iran, Shia militas, to come in to Iraq to fight ISIS.”

Those Shia militas of course would be our sworn enemies during the Iraq war – who American soldiers died fighting.

“This is a prescription for disaster — it will only inflame the Sunni tribes, make the sectarian divisions even deeper and wider, and I don’t see it as a long-term strategy to win.”

McCaul said the Obama’s adminsitration’s strategy — “whatever the strategy is” — is not working.

It almost looks like Obama is setting up a show-down between Iranian Shia Militias and the Islamic state.

***

John McCain took to the Senate floor today to blast administration toadies for playing down the Ramadi “set-back.”

Referring to White House Press Sec Josh Earnest’s recent comments, McCain seethed, “how could anyone say that we shouldn’t light our hair on fire when news reports clearly indicate that there are burning bodies in the streets of Ramadi, that ISIL are going from house to house – seeking out people and executing them. Tens of thousands of people are refuges. And what does the president’s spokesman say?! That we shouldn’t light our hair on fire every time there is a setback.”

Muslims in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, all members of ISIS, went door to door slaughtering innocent people at random, eventually killing 500 people at the end of their murder spree. According to one report:

ISIS fighters went door-to-door looking for military troops and security forces after taking the city, and killed 500 people in the streets, including children.

Click on the link at your own risk as there is a gruesome photo.

Muhanad Haimour, an Anbar Province spokesman, said:

There have been executions in the streets of Ramadi… The situation in the city is absolutely terrible. The city is in very bad shape.

Sheikh Rafi al-Fahdawi, a tribal leader from Ramadi who had been fighting ISIS, recounted the scene of horror:

Men, women, kids and fighters’ bodies are scattered on the ground… All security forces and tribal leaders have either retreated or been killed in battle. It is a big loss.

***

In Syria – as I’m sure you’ve heard by now – the ancient city of Palmyra fell to ISIS– and ”its grand complex of 2,000-year-old colonnades and tombs – one of the world’s most magnificent remnants of antiquity,” will soon be destroyed by the barbarians.

This comes just five days after they seized the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

But for the fighters on the ground, the city of 50,000 people is significant because it sits among gas fields and astride a network of roads across the country’s central desert. Palmyra’s vast unexcavated antiquities could also provide significant revenue through illegal trafficking.

Control of Palmyra gives the Islamic State command of roads leading from its strongholds in eastern Syria to Damascus and the other major cities of the populated west, as well as new links to western Iraq, the other half of its self-declared caliphate.

the State Department is deeply concerned about all of this and will be closely watching the destruction of the city.

She acknowledged that “the destruction and looting of these sites has been sort of something we’ve seen in other places” and it’s “incredibly harmful,” but as to the question of what the U.S. could do, Harf only had this to offer:

Harf added: “This is the reason we’re trying to push back ISIL out of Iraq and to try and help the Syrian opposition push back ISIL in Syria.”

“This is something we’re following; we’re concerned about this. Obviously, it has been caught in the crossfire for some time and we’ll speak up about it,” said Harf. “Beyond that, I’m not sure what more can be done.”

The threat of terrorism in the homeland ranks pretty low in this president’s list of issues to be concerned about. In case you haven’t noticed.

“Climate change” is apparently the national security threat that keeps Obama up at night. And those who refuse to act on this crucial national security issue are guilty of “a dereliction of duty” and should be denounced for undermining “American readiness.”

He gave this delusional speech at the at the commencement ceremony of the United States coast guard academy in New London, Connecticut.
The only saving grace to this hot mess is the light, tepid applause Obama got at the end – which is typically what Commander in Chief gets when he speaks in front of military audiences – because they don’t buy his bullshit.

Over the weekend, while the the Obama administration was patting itself on the back for the Delta Force raid on ISIS/Daesh Oil Financier Abu Sayyaf, ISIS was sacking Ramadi, seizing U.S. military equipment, including missile launchers and tanks – enough to “take 3 more Mosuls and about 10 Ramadis,” according to one ISIS supporter.

Bill O’Reilly asked his guests, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (ret) and Col. David Hunt (Ret.) Monday night, if they’ve heard the same rumor he’d heard that “the Obama administration knew that Ramadi was going to fall, knew it was an embarrassment, and then okayed this mission (as Col Hunt mentioned there were more than one hundred other requests that were not okayed – to take the sting out of the Ramadi situation.”

Peters said, “I’ve not heard that direct link, but I have heard the administration is doing everything it can to do damage control on the fall of Ramadi.”

“Bill, the State Department has finally said that the fall of Ramadi was a set-back. It’s not a set-back. It’s a catastrophe! Ramadi is 75 miles from Baghdad! That’s Trenton to downtown Manhattan. It’s the capital of Anbar province – the key Sunni Arab province – it’s important because so many bled – died! – to take Ramadi!”

He continued to say that it was also a huge symbolic win for the Islamic State, and that “there are even some reports they got some of our M-1 tanks we gave the Iraqis.”

The strikes targeted Islamic State fighting positions, armoured and technical vehicles, and buildings they control.

Obama allegedly has a coalition of 60 nations fighting ISIS with us and they only managed 19 airstrikes in a three-day period.

During the Gulf War’s “Shock and Awe” campaign, the U.S. rained down 300 to 400 cruise missiles a day on Iraq for two consecutive days. At the beginning of the Iraq War, the U.S. unleashed 800 cruise missiles in two days.

Meanwhile, a massive convoy of ISIS fighters was able to parade out in the open desert in Western Anbar on Monday, completely unmolested.

The Regime says a “sandstorm” prevented them from acting, but pictures and video show an area completely clear of sand storms.

According to the ISIS Study Group, “the public thinks Ramadi fell just the other day, but in all honesty IS had been in control of the city for the last six months.”

All this did was make it “official.” We’re aware of 50 ISF personnel who are currently trapped in the city with no way out – meaning they don’t have long on this Earth. The Obama administration may be downplaying the significance of this blow, but this is the biggest IA defeat since the fall of Mosul.

We’ve been warning about IS’ tightening chokehold on the province and how al-Asad Airbase is in danger of being overrun. As of this writing, the base is surrounded and isolated from any ground reinforcements with the Iraqi Army (IA) base in Taqaddum also vulnerable to a complex attack. A smaller IA presence at Camp Warar has been completely cut off and already experiencing probing attacks with the IS OP-tempo increasing in Fallujah and Karmah – which have forced some of the Shia proxy Popular Mobilization Committee (PMC) personnel to withdraw. After purging Ramadi of the remaining ISF presence, IS held a massive parade with a large concentration of fighters, armored vehicles and other confiscated equipment involved in the festivities as a show of force and to taunt the US government for being so weak. Not surprisingly, the Obama administration failed to capitalize on the large concentration of fighters in the area by not launching airstrikes on their positions. They claim a “sandstorm” prevented the US Air Force from launching airstrikes, which is interesting since the area seems pretty clear of sandstorms in the video footage that’s circulating the net.

St. Jude Catholic Church of the City of Westlake Village was defaced on Easter weekend. The following brief story appeared in the April 11, 2013 issue of The Acorn, a community newspaper that serves Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Oak Park, and Westlake Village in California:

“Vandals targeted the 32000 block of Lindero Canyon Road sometime between Fri., March 29 and Sat., March 30, authorities said.

“The graffiti included a reference to homosexuality, several four-letter words and a swastika, a source told The Acorn. One scrawl reportedly said, ‘God is gay.’”

The story got no attention outside the small communities mentioned above.

At least seven people were wounded in an attack on a Christian church in the Egyptian province of Minya late Friday, in the latest incident of violence against the country’s Coptic Christian minority. The church had been established to commemorate the 20 Coptic Christians beheaded in Libya by the Islamic State militant group. Thirteen of the victims came from Minya’s al-Our village, where the church was being built, Daily News Egypt reported Sunday.

Coptic residents of al-Our had obtained permission to build the church in the aftermath of the beheadings in Libya, which left the impoverished village’s Christian community devastated. Thousands of people had mourned the victims following the release of an Islamic State video last month showing the men being executed. The beheadings prompted the Egyptian government to begin an air campaign in Libya targeting the militant group, also known as ISIS.

The Islamic State’s campaign of terror across the war-torn nation, which has already seen countless beheadings, destruction of priceless art and religious artifacts and insistence that Christians submit or die, now includes mass desecration of graves. Photos of the black-clad, extremist ghouls smashing headstones in cemeteries in the key northern city of Mosul were posted Thursday online under the title “Leveling Graves and Erasing Pagan Symbols.”

The ideological cousins of militant Islamists, are militant homosexuals, strangely enough. (Note, I say “militant” – as in fanatical, unhinged ideologues. Obviously most gays do not fall into this category, but unfortunately a rather loud and influential cohort does.) Both are fascistic, totalitarian freaks who demand that their worldview be embraced or there’ll be hell to pay. Both wish to totally control the culture and humiliate and subjugate those who don’t embrace it.

That one type of fascism is more bloodthirsty than the other only adds irony to the mix. Homosexuals, of course, are among the most persecuted individuals in Islamic societies.

The Islamic State is demanding a $30 million ransom to release hundreds of Christian hostages. Fox News reports ISIS jihadists are demanding $100,000 for each hostage. “They know we cannot come up with this kind of money so they’re hoping other groups and countries will come up with the money,” Fox quoted an unnamed Assyrian leader. The jihadi army captured 250-300 civilians in attacks on 35 Assyrian villages in the Hasaka province on February 23. Islamic State fighters killed nine Assyrians attempting to defend their homes. So far the Islamist group released 23 hostages who were told to leave the country rather than return to their homes.

No joke – they really are the meanest and most demented kids on the block. They remind me of the evil inbred freaks in the Texas Chainsaw massacre. Only those freaks actually retained an ounce of humanity. They need to be stopped cold by a military willing to unleash overwhelming force on them.

Sadly – that won’t be happening as long as the current pResident is in office.